Chrenkoff

A crowd of 600 Afghan clerics gathered in front of an historic mosque yesterday to strip the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar of his claim to religious authority, in a ceremony that provided a significant boost to the presidency of Hamid Karzai.

The declaration, signed by 1,000 clerics from across the country, is an endorsement of the US-backed programme of reconciliation with more moderate elements of the Taliban movement that Karzai has been pursuing ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections, due in September.

Symbolically, the ulema shura, or council of clerics, was held at the Blue Mosque in the southern city of Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban movement.

At the same venue in 1996 the Taliban leader held up a cloak said to belong to the Prophet Mohammed, which is kept in a shrine in the mosque. He was proclaimed Amir ul-Mumineen or Leader of Muslims by the same clerical body, one of the few occasions the title has been granted anywhere in the Islamic world in the modern era.

A leading politician who ran against Hamed Karzai in last year's presidential election has announced the creation of a new coalition that hopes to win a majority of seats in the national legislature this autumn, and create a parliamentary form of government.

Mohammad Yunus Qanuni, who ran for president last October, said that the National Understanding Front (Jabha-ye-Tafahhum-e-Milli), made up of 11 political parties, would act as an opposition to the Karzai government.

Once in parliament, the bloc will seek to amend the constitution to replace the current system of government, which it believes gives the president too much power. Instead, the coalition favours a system in which "the prime minister is chosen by parliament, and power is shared between the president and the prime minister", said coalition spokesman Sayed Ali Jawed, of the Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami party.

For the first time in the history of the eastern Afghan provinces, barbers have form a committee, calling themselves Pak Salmanian or the clean barbers with the hope of taking part in the forthcoming provincial elections.

Barbers attending a meeting held in the provincial capital of eastern Nangarhar,Jalalabadd, from Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar, nominated Saida Gul as their leader and representative.

Hundreds of young men, fed up with the ethnic animosities that have long divided Afghanistan, are traveling the country preaching peace and brotherhood.

"Just yesterday our youngsters were trying to kill one another, but today they're thinking about national unity and they want to live as brothers," said Haji Sarajuddin, a teacher from Kandahar province.

Sarajuddin recently accompanied about 200 senior high school students from the traditional Pashtun stronghold in the south to Mazar-e-Sharif in the north, in an area where ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks are in the majority.

The two regions came to symbolise the deep divisions that marked the years of strife of the Nineties.

But in April, nearly 300 students in Mazar-e-Sharif warmly embraced their fellow countrymen from Kandahar when they met at a local hotel.

The students, all in their teens or early twenties, were too young to have participated in the years of civil war.

"We know that due to the conflicts, a lot of distance has come between the peoples of Afghanistan," Mohammad Nazar, 23, told IWPR. "You can't bring about national unity by just talking, so about 30 of us at schools in Kandahar got together and decided to do something practical."

From the core group of 30, the unity movement boomed, said Nazar.

The young men say they have no political agenda other than reconciliation. They have taken their message not only to Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, but also to other northern regions such as Parwan, Baghlan, Takhar and Kunduz, to Paktia and Zabul in the south, and to the capital Kabul and the nearby Wardak province.

A Taliban splinter group, widely regarded as a moderate camp, on Monday pledged support to the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai.

Abdul Hakim Mujahid, heading the political wing of the Jamiat-i-Khuddamul Furqan, categorically declared aversion to the trail of murder and mayhem stemming from Taliban activities in Afghanistan.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Hakim said they had snapped all links to the hard-core Taliban leadership after joining Khuddam's council three years ago.

Khuddam resumed activities in Peshawar (NWFP) soon after the ouster of Taliban from power in 2001. Last year, its leader Mohammad Amin Mujadeddi said the party, launched more than 30 years back, had been reactivated.

Darulaman Palace, a symbol of national unity and independence since 1929, is being rebuilt after being left a shell of a building by years of civil war.

Designed by German and French architects and constructed mostly by hand between 1919 and 1929, Darulaman was commissioned by the then king, Amanullah Khan, who is still revered for ending British influence on the country.

Darulaman was used by the Afghan defence ministry from the Soviet occupation of 1979 onwards. It was severely damaged in 1991 and 1992 during the factional fighting that brought an end to communist rule.

"Darulaman palace represents the link between the old and new Afghanistan," said Nasrullah Stanekzai, deputy minister of information, culture and tourism.

When completed, the new palace will be used by Afghanistan's legislature for offices and meetings, although the body does not plan to convene there for its regular sessions.

The three-phase, 70 million US dollar reconstruction project is being undertaken by the Darulaman Reconstruction Foundation with financial assistance from German donors as well as expatriate Afghans living in Germany.

Rebuilding is expected to take three years. The project will employ an estimated 1,500 workers, said Abdul Hamid Farooqi, a foundation member.

One key provision in the new Juvenile Code, which was formally adopted by the Afghan cabinet in February 2005, is the increase in the age of criminal responsibility from seven to 12 years, as well as recognizing the definition of a child as being anyone under the age of 18.

The code also introduces important protection for children under the process of the law, including no child can be held without trial for more than two months, and children awaiting trial will be kept in the care of their families or guardians. The new code provides a broader range of measures for children convicted of crimes, including official cautions and probation as an alternative to custodial punishments.

A small but significant advance for Afghan democracy was made April 27. The Hirat Province districts of Guzara and Obe opened courthouses as part of the Afghanistan Rule of Law Project.

"After 25 years of warfare and the destruction or decay of so many courthouses, this event celebrates a new beginning," said Inge Frylund, a rule of law adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development. "The opening of a new courthouse symbolizes the newfound importance of (the) rule of law in Afghanistan."

USAID funded the projects, but Afghan citizens did all the work.

"The architects, engineers, contractors and builders were all local Afghans working together to build the courthouses," said Kenneth E. Hennings, west regional development adviser for USAID.

Each project cost $90,000, including all the furniture and books.

On April 3rd a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between USAID/Land Titling & Economic Restructuring in Afghanistan (LTERA) & the Afghan Geodesy & Cartography Head Office (AGCHO). The LTERA project has begun training a team of mapping specialists from the AGCHO in a fast and affordable technique using aerial photography for mapping. LTERA is providing equipment and capacity building in geo-spatial mapping technology and AGCHO is providing mapping materials, coordinates and a flying permit to restart the mapping of Afghanistan, which was interrupted by years of war.

Mapping is an essential component of LTERA's initiative to move Afghanistan towards a unified, modern system of property registration. "Only 30% of Afghanistan has been properly mapped," said Engineer Abdul Raouf, General President of AGCHO. "We still have 70% to go."

High in the snow-capped Hindu Kush, visitors stream to see the new governor. A huddle of turbaned men carrying plastic sunflowers in a gold vase nod respectfully. The British ambassador flies in from Kabul. By morning's end, the office is filled with 25 bouquets of fake flowers, and a calf is tethered outside.

Nothing unusual, then, in a culture that prizes deference to authority, except for one thing: The new boss is a woman.

Habiba Sarobi is Afghanistan's first female governor, a major advance in a society where only four years ago, under the Taliban, women were denied everything from school lessons to lipstick.

From the corner of a Kabul basement, next door to a barber shop, come high-pitched and most unusual sounds. A small posse of Afghan girls shout "heey-ya!" as they practice karate jabs, kicks, and punches.

The eldest of the bunch, Nargas Rahimi, returned to her Afghan homeland last year after growing up in Iran. "I saw that Afghan women didn't have the faintest idea about exercise. So I came here to act as an example for Afghan girls and to help them take part in Afghan society," she says.

With the help of several new Kabul fitness clubs (with women-only hours) like the Khusal Khanmeena gym, Afghan girls and women are getting their first taste of sports. Girls' schools here are also introducing athletics, and the women's Olympic committee is now training some 1,500 Afghan girls to compete abroad. Last summer, for the first time in the nation's history, two women competed in the Olympics.

After years of being cloistered in their homes during Taliban times, women are now looking to private gyms and sports clubs as one of the few pathways opening up for women and girls trying to reemerge into a society that remains highly segregated - and dangerous. Two weeks ago, a woman was stoned to death for adultery.

"Sport can be used as a vehicle for creating a safe space, an entrance into the public sphere," says Martha Brady, a program associate with the Population Council in New York who has worked on bringing sports to girls in Egypt. In many countries, she says, "you can see an 8-year-old girl outside kicking a ball around. You don't see her when she's 13 because she's sequestered at home."

A bearded man from the bazaar is whisked into a barber shop, where he's given a shave and a slick haircut. After a facial, he visits fashion boutiques.

In a few tightly edited minutes of television, the humble bricklayer is transformed into an Afghan metrosexual, complete with jeans, sweater, suede jacket, and sunglasses.

It may sound like standard reality TV fare in the West, but it's edgy in Afghanistan. Tolo TV aired the show only once.

But in a pop culture as barren as the mountains here, Tolo's mix of MTV-style shows and hard-hitting news programs has turned the up-and-coming network into an entertainment oasis.

Today, it's a kind of must-see TV that has government officials leaving work early to catch their favorite show. But it's also a lightning rod for Afghan critics who see the station as a threat to the country's Islamic values.

On the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, Daud Maqsoudi and several other men and women were sitting around, talking about village reconstruction.

"We should be united and rebuild Chamanistan [Afghanistan]. Lets consult with everyone and find out how to rebuild our land," Haji Tawab, who was introduced as the community elder and head of the Shura [community council] was heard saying. Tawab's call was followed by a murmur of agreement from the group.

Maqsoudi and the others are not rural villagers but renowned Afghan actors recording the new "Let Us Build Our Village," radio soap opera that was aired for the first time on Wednesday. The new programme is only the second radio soap opera after the BBC's popular ten-year-old "New Home New Life" programme.

Like the BBC's offering, "Let us build our village" is also broadcast in Dari and Pashtu. It's the brainchild of the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), and designed to realistically portray both the joys and hardships of life in rural Afghanistan. The programme will focus on progress in construction and reconstruction of rural communities.

"Afghans are really fond of soap operas and the experience of New Home New Life proved that soap opera dramas can be one of the best means of bringing people together and raising awareness of rural areas," Maqsoudi, the director and editor of the new drama, who also wrote for the BBC soap, said.

Music was anathema to the Taliban, but now a programme of music charts broadcast by a private radio station every Friday has become a "must listen" for Afghans.

Until the US-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the regime led by Mullah Omar, anyone found listening to music faced a brutal beating and incarceration.

These days Arman FM, the country's only private radio station, broadcasts its "Top 40" on Friday to a large and devoted audience.

There are no useful national statistics, and so gauging the most popular songs demands considerable improvisation.

Arman - which means roughly "Request" - sends out its staff to the music shops of Kabul to conduct a weekly survey on which cassettes are most in demand.

Once the most popular singer is found, Arman's musical editors decide which of the songs to choose for the hit parade.

Arman is popular not only for the charts. Listeners can phone in and talk on air. There are also music request programmes, and when games with prizes are broadcast, the entire mobile phone network occasionally goes down under the overload.

The station receives around 2,500 calls and letters every day, some of the missives running to pages and decorated with hearts carefully pasted on.

News is also an important part of the station's broadcasting. When there is news of major national or international significance, the music programme is interrupted for a news flash.

Three brothers of Afghan origin from Australia established the broadcaster, which went on air for the first time in April 2003 with a total staff complement of just nine.

Today there are 170 people working for the station, many of them crammed into just four rooms in a house in the centre of Kabul which is now much too small.

The venture has been a commercial success, the station earning a profit from its advertising.

Children injured by landmines will be among those to benefit from a new paediatric hospital built and run by Germans in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Although the hospital, financed largely by the German charity Peace Village International, has been accepting patients since the beginning of the year, last month saw the formal opening, presided over by German ambassador Rainald Steck, Afghan Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi and Irene Salimi, a well-known human-rights advocate who has long worked to aid Afghans in general and children in particular.

The 40-bed German Paediatric Hospital has the capacity to administer general anaesthetics to young patients. Before, such patients would have had to travel abroad for this treatment.

Over the past three years, the government of Afghanistan has made notable efforts to revive the higher education sector in parallel with ongoing progress in primary and secondary education. Eighteen higher education institutions have reopened their doors and enrollment has jumped from 4,000 students in 2001 to 37,000 in the fall of 2004. As in primary education, the enrollment profile is skewed with approximately two-thirds of students in their first and second years. With students returning from Pakistan and other countries and the students graduating from high schools, demand for higher education is on the rise, not only in terms of enrollment but also in terms of relevance of curricula and quality of teaching.

The Strengthening Higher Education Program aims to progressively restore basic operational performance at a group of core universities in Afghanistan, and to provide an institutional base for the development of an agenda focusing on tertiary education development, capacity building and reform. The program is envisaged as the first-phase of a long-term higher education development program in Afghanistan. In addition, it will act as a catalyst to attract various resources to the Afghan tertiary education sector with a long-term development framework. The program also facilitates and finances partnership program agreements for Kabul Polytechnic University, Kabul University, and four regional universities (Balkh, Herat, Kandahar and Nangarhar) with established foreign universities.

Afghan broadcasting authorities have just reserved a TV and a radio FM frequency for Educational Radio and Television service to open a dedicated channel specialized in educational broadcasting. This concession was facilitated by UNESCO in the framework of a $2.5 million project funded by the Government of Italy for the upgrade and rehabilitation of distance education services in Afghanistan, and under which transmitters suitable to go on air in the given frequencies will shortly be provided.

After being almost totally destroyed during years of civil conflict, the building housing the Educational Radio and Television Centre (ERTV) of Afghanistan's Ministry of Education has been fully renovated and equipped with computers, radio-Tv production equipment and Internet, and is again operational since July 2004. UNESCO has already provided three months of intensive training in fields such as TV and radio techniques, use of digital equipment, programme production, English language proficiency and computer literacy. On December ten ERTV's "key" production staff -including two female producers- received advanced training at the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in the Malaysian Educational Broadcaster.

Six Afghan professors are learning basic computer skills from their peers at SDSU as part of an ongoing effort to help rebuild the higher education infrastructure of the war-torn country.

"What we had was destroyed. We are more optimistic now," said Mohammad Tahir Torakay, a professor and head of what's left of the Department of Agronomics at Nangarhar University in Jalalabad.

In June, the Afghan professors will complete their month-long visit to San Diego to learn basic computer and internet skills at a learning laboratory at SDSU's City Heights Community Technology Center.

SDSU faculty and staff have been participating since last year in efforts to establish new computer-aided learning opportunities at Nangarhar University, including the installation in 2004 of a satellite-based computer laboratory that provides broad-band internet access to faculty and students for the first time. Their work is part of an ongoing project funded in part by Rotary International and The Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace.

"Our methodology of teaching is so much older. I need to know about that new methodology of teaching," said Mohammad Zaher Osool.

"When we finish, we transfer our knowledge to Afghanistan. We hope to bring a change there," said Mohammad Hakim Azimi.

University Professor Zarghona Achekzai is grateful to be teaching again. She was forced to quit for five years under Taliban rule. "At first it was difficult for all of the women because after a long time for the first time they go to the university and job for the first time and it was difficult," she said.

Kabul Golf Club is the pride of Afzal Abdul, who is symbolic of so many people I met traveling around this massive country last week with a delegation from the remarkable international aid organization Save The Children.

Neither the Soviet tanks, nor the civil wars, nor the Taliban's repression has robbed Afzal Abdul of his passion. The mines, the bombs, the fear that comes from 30 years of war hasn't taken away his love of golf.

How much do you love the game? Have you been jailed twice and charged with the crime of being a golfer? Afzal Abdul has.

The Soviets locked him up during their occupation in the 1980s. They built a compound adjacent to the ninth hole and every day watched the golfers suspiciously.

Finally, they stormed his clubhouse, closed down his course and put him in jail for six months, without giving him a reason. He believes they must have thought he was conspiring with the golfers to overthrow the Soviets...

Ten years later, the Taliban broke into his home as he slept, took all of his golf clubs, his shoes, all of the certificates and trophies he had won and jailed him for two months.

A cricket craze seems poised to sweep the country following the surprisingly strong showing by a team of young Afghans at a recent international competition. Their success came despite the fact that they don't even have enough shoes for all the players.

The team - made up of youths between 13- and 15-years old - finished second out of 14 teams in their age bracket at the Asian Cricket Council Cup finals held in April in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Afghanistan's Hashmatullah Rabani was named the tournament's best player and Sanauallah Mohib was honoured as best bowler.

While the game has been played here since at least 1992, it has only been in the last four years, since the fall of the Taleban regime, that it has been able to flower.

Before the fall of the Taliban in November 2001, 27 million Afghan citizens had to make do with approximately 20,000 working telephone lines. Domestic connections were spotty, while only a handful of expensive satellite phones could dial internationally.

Today, through the extraordinary efforts of the Afghan Wireless Communication Company and its parent company, Telephone Systems International (TSI), more than 300,000 citizens subscribe to the Afghan wireless network, with coverage in twenty cities and an additional twenty cities slated for service by the end of the summer.

The development of the Afghan wireless network has been the mission of Ehsan Bayat, an Afghan-American who fled Afghanistan in 1980. Observing the need for a comprehensive communications network in Afghanistan, Bayat partnered his United States-based company, TSI, with the Afghan Ministry of Communications to launch a wireless network that Bayat hopes will be "the digital artery of our nation, allowing communication, commerce, and electronic exchanges to flow easily among all Afghans."

This digital network "leaves no part of Afghanistan untouched," according to Bayat, who adds "by the end of the summer, we will have three-quarters of the nation covered."

Roshan, started by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, Monaco Telecom International and U.S.-based MCT Corp., has been operating in Afghanistan for 18 months.

With the country's landline system virtually non-existent after decades of conflict and neglect, Roshan and the other GSM provider, Afghan Wireless Communication Company, have about 800,000 subscribers, or three percent of the population.

That total is expected to grow to one million by the end of the year, Khoja said.

The Telecommunications Ministry says the new licenses will generate revenue for the government in fees, attract more than $200 million in new foreign direct investment and create thousands of skilled, well-paid jobs.

The Telecommunication Ministry had decided in principle to allow the private sector to launch the digital phone service at the district level.

Telecommunication Minister Amir Zai Sangeen told a news conference here on Tuesday the objective behind the decision was to enable people in the countryside to have access to a better communication system.

Currently, the digital phone facility is available in 11 provinces only and that too under a stringent government control. But as a result of Tuesday's decision, the private sector can now launch the service after seeking permission letter from the ministry concerned.

More than two decades of conflict combined with a lack of maintenance has resulted in the deterioration of large part of Afghanistan's road network. This has meant that the road network has been rendered only partially usable with high transportation costs. Today, more than 50 percent of the main road network is in poor condition.

The Emergency Transport Rehabilitation Project (ETRP), funded by a World Bank credit of US$108 million, approved in March 2003 aimed at restoring road and airport infrastructure in Afghanistan. Under this project, the government funded the rehabilitation of the Kabul - Doshi, Pol-e-Khomri-Kunduz - Shirkhan Bandar highway, including already completed work on the Salang tunnel; rehabilitation of Kabul International Airport including reconstruction of damaged runway pavement, provision of airfield ground lighting, and other related equipment to support safe airport operations; and rehabilitation of secondary roads.

The supplemental grant of US$45 million for the Emergency Transport Rehabilitation Project approved today, will increment the project budget for Kunduz-Taloqan-Kishem road rehabilitation, and other components for satisfactory completion of the project. The project is expected to be completed by the Ministry of Public Works and Ministry of Transport by June 2007.

The government of Afghanistan plans to build its first international railway, linking the former Taliban stronghold city of Kandahar in the south, to Pakistan, said Public Works Minister Shorah Ali Safari.

Safari said in an interview today that he submitted a proposal to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet 10 days ago and "hopes" the project will be approved this year for construction to start in 2006. He didn't elaborate on financing.

The country now has less than a kilometer (three-fifths of a mile) of railroad, built by the Soviet Union to supply its troops. Afghanistan, with a population of 29 million, prevented the British and Soviets, which both tried to rule the country, from building railways, seeing them as invasion tools. The U.S. invaded in 2001 and ousted the fundamentalist Taliban government.

"Time has changed," said Safari, 60, speaking in the Iranian city of Mashad. "Trains are no longer used to invade countries -- they'll boost our economy and benefit our people."

The reconstruction of the 78 kilometers long Kandahar-Arghistan road - costing more than $1 million - started on Sunday [8 May].

Funds for the project, to be completed in three months, would be provided from the development budget, Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai said, adding the road would link his province with Oruzgan and Bamiyan.

The Kandahar's Public Works Department reckons the scheme, having a propitious effect on the economy, will offer 9,000 people employment opportunities.

Back in the days of the Taliban, Mir Sediq was an engineer for Unocal, working on a pipe dream: bringing natural gas from Turkmenistan down through Afghanistan to Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea.

Today, Mr. Sediq is minister for Afghanistan's energy, mining, and industrial sector, and he's confident that the pipeline is coming close to reality.

Driven by a Pakistani economy growing at nearly 7 percent a year and higher energy prices, the pipeline, on paper, is the closest thing to a win-win scenario as one can find in Central Asia. For Pakistan, expected to run out of its own reserves in five years, the pipeline will help sustain growth. For Turkmenistan, it helps to provide a market for its substantial gas reserves. And for Afghanistan, it could mean from $200 million to $350 million per year in transit fees.

In the rough parlance of oil industry executives, that beats a kick in the head.

"This pipeline is an opportunity for Afghanistan, and we would like to keep Afghanistan a place that is open and attractive for foreign investment," says Sediq. "The foreign investment rate of return is 17.5 percent, based on the assumptions that the gas reserves in Turkmenistan are enough and the consumption rate in Pakistan remains high. Only security of the pipeline is left, and the government of Afghanistan is capable of providing security."

Committed to building infrastructure in Afghanistan, the government is all set to clear the... Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul power transmission project that will bring the much-needed Uzbek power for the capital. The project is to be executed by the Power Grid Corporation.

Sources said that the Finance Ministry has already approved the key project after a nod from the committee on non-planned expenditure. It is now waiting for a green signal from the Cabinet after which the public sector undertaking would take on the construction of the 205 km transmission line.

As part of the reconstruction exercise, Kabul would be getting 300 MW of power from a hydel power venture in Uzbekistan. Power would first be evacuated from the power station all the way upto Pul-e-Khumri and thereon to Kabul.

The United Nations agricultural agency is set to oversee the distribution in Afghanistan of around 14,000 grain storage silos - produced by local tinsmiths and technicians - to farmers in nine provinces.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the aim of the project is to help reduce post-harvest losses, improve grain quality, increase the income of farmers by allowing them to sell grain during the off-season when prices are more favourable and enhance household food security.

Some 220 tinsmiths and technicians in the country are currently being trained through the project in an effort to build local capacity and improve the quality of local silo production.

"The small metallic silo has been adopted by many developing countries as appropriate, affordable technology for small- and medium-scale farmers to prevent food losses," said Tim Vaessen, FAO's Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordinator.

The locally produced silos, with grain storage capacities ranging from 120 to 1,800 kilograms, will be given to individual farmers, farmers' groups and cooperatives.

Randy Frescoln had to make something out of nothing during a six-month assignment as a rural development worker in Afghanistan.

With no money to spend and no real job description, Frescoln set out to rebuild the war-torn Asian nation's agriculture. The job tested his ingenuity, creativity and, ultimately, his survival skills.

The labour intensive programme underway throughout the province is aimed at stabilizing living conditions of communities with vulnerable populations; encouraging participation in a variety of legitimate income generating activities through the quick disbursement of cash and other resources to targeted groups and at raising the quality of public infrastructure while fostering cooperation between the local, district, provincial and national government officials and the affected population. So far, there are 23 projects under the programme that will employ an estimated 10,000 skilled and unskilled labourers for a period of 50 days each. More projects, which will employ even more people, are in the pipeline with all due to finish by the end of the year.

In the capital of Badakhshan, Faizabad, one of the projects is improving irrigation for farmers. The city is located in a valley with great potential for agriculture, but most fields are rain-fed only due to poor irrigation systems. IOM engineers have designed an improved intake for the canal so the volume of water available for irrigation will increase substantially. This will allow more farmers to water their fields and to increase agricultural output...

Other projects include the rehabilitation or construction of water supplies, roads, bridges, schools and clinics.

Eight months and almost five million dollars... 221 projects completed or in progress, such is the legacy of Combined Task Force Longhorn.

From the youngest to oldest, from men to women, the CTF Longhorn reached out and touched the people of western Afghanistan.

"We have completed projects that range from building 10 new schools to air dropping humanitarian assistance supplies and then almost everything in between," said Maj. Rick Johnson, Regional Command West civil affairs officer.

CTF Longhorn took over for Task Force Saber in Oct. 2004, and has led the way ever since in providing humanitarian assistance and provisions to the Afghan people.

Projects started during TF Saber's era were completed by Longhorn, which includes four new schools in the Shindand district of the Farah province.

"Building schools has the largest and longest impact," said Johnson. "They can't be destroyed or misused as easily as vehicles. The entire community gets excited. The locals are very serious about education, even the warlords."

Maj. Carl Hollister says he has spent more time building schools and an electrical grid than fighting terrorists, but feels that his work has done as much as the force of arms to cut back Afghanistan's insurgency.

Leading a convoy of armored Humvees through the dusty streets of this city near the border with Pakistan, the U.S. paratrooper says his troops are ready to do battle at any time with the Taliban remnants and al Qaeda militants seeking to undermine the government of President Hamid Karzai.

But as commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Khost, his primary job is to oversee projects aimed at winning the hearts and minds of Afghans.

Interviews with local residents suggest that the program is working. "Life is a lot better now than it was under the Taliban," said Atta Attaullah, who runs a small shop that sells DVDs to U.S. soldiers.

Security remains a major concern for traders like him, who travel in large groups because of carjackings and terrorist attacks because they cooperate with the Americans. But since the fall of the Taliban, he said, "Girls and boys can go to school, and they don't have to pay the teachers. The coalition forces established a lot of schools, water pumps and roads."

Rahmat Ullah, a shop owner by day and a general practitioner by night at a local clinic, said the change of government had allowed him to complete his medical degree at Khost University. "U.S. forces bring us peace and freedom," Dr. Ullah said. "It's worth a lot of sacrifice."

Creating the first road to directly connect the remote city of Tarin Kowt with the southern city of Kandahar is a monumental task no matter how you look at it.

No one knows that better than the Soldiers of Task Force Sword, the engineers of Combined Joint Task Force-76.

"Everything has to be trucked or flown in," said U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Scott Walden, Task Sword's operations sergeant major. "The areas through which this road is being constructed are so remote that many of the items our soldiers need have to be flown in."

The Soldiers are responsible for the road's "bottom half." They make sure the area where the asphalt will be laid is level, that water on it drains and that culverts run along it to handle the draining water.

"The number of Soldiers we have working on the project changes as we speak," he said. "Right now it's probably about half a battalion of engineers."

Walden explained the U.S. Agency for International Development will add an asphalt-like substance after his unit completes its work.

Children are one of the Guard's key focuses. The troops tell News 8 that one in four Afghan children will not live to the age of 10. The need can be overwhelming... One orphanage News 8 visited is home to nearly 700 children. Even more take classes there. One teenager, Kalimullah, said the kids were happy to see American soldiers. "All of children want you here because they bring security, they bring peace, all of the children like [you]," he said.

Members of the Indiana National Guard also bring jobs to the locals. When News 8 was at the orphanage, people were being hired to lay blacktop. The commander emergency relief program provides the money to pay for projects that rebuild Afghanistan. LtCol Paul Grube of New Albany, Indiana is in charge. "The reality is if they can't feed their families then Taliban will pay someone $20 to fire a rocket. And so we've got to put the economy back together and once the economy is together then the quality of life is better and they're not so willing to go to war," he said.

The United States is spending $87,000 to fund a new kitchen going up at a teaching hospital. At the moment, all they have is a makeshift stove.

During a four-day road trip into the far northwest corner of Afghanistan, a provincial reconstruction team based in Herat visited more than two dozen settlements, several of which weren't even on the map.

The journey covered 265 miles, lasted 78 hours and encompassed four districts. Led by a small civil affairs staff, the 16-member team met community leaders, explored remote areas and gathered information that could be of use in the future.

Pushing at each other, Afghan men crowd together early in the morning, hoping to be the one accepted into a trade school to earn $3 that day and, more importantly, a skill that will provide a future.

In a nation where unemployment remains a pressing problem, the Contrack Construction Training Center is a place where Afghans are paid to learn necessary trade skills that upon graduation will help them obtain jobs with Contrack International, one of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' main construction contractors.

The Corps' Afghanistan Engineer District is committed to encouraging the employment of Afghans. "Our hope is that at some point we can reach the entire Afghan workforce," said U.S. Army Col. John. B. O'Dowd, district commander, at a recent news conference.

"A majority of workers on our projects are (Afghans) and 75 percent of the workers involved in our new construction projects are Afghans," he said.

The American Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the eastern city of Jalalabad... completed rebuilding a main mosque costing $29,000.

The spacious Spin Jumaat (White Mosque) in the city center can house thousands of worshippers, said Nangarhar Governor Haji Din Mohammad, who lauded the American PRT's gesture.

Although foreigners themselves did not offer prayers, he observed, "their rebuilding of the mosque is a good lesson for terrorists, whose propaganda campaign against American presence here knows no end."

The day before members of the Khost Provincial Reconstruction Team visited this small village in northern Khost province, a man brought his sick son here from Peshawar, Pakistan, in the hopes that powers from the shrine here would cure him.

No one knows if his visit was successful, but it is just one example of how revered the shrine here is.

Considered the second holiest site in Khost province, the Faquirana shrine is the destination for many Muslims who believe it has healing powers.

At more than 80 years old, however, the shrine was badly in need of repairs. Recently, the Khost PRT gave the village $7,200 to help restore the shrine and a mosque just down the road.

The Khost Provincial Reconstruction Team is providing $22,000 to help repair a mosque and adjacent buildings damaged by rockets fired by insurgents.

PRT members attended an April 27 press conference at the mosque that marked the start of reconstruction on the buildings damaged in the terrorist attack.

Enemy fighters had fired rockets at Forward Operating Base Salerno March 22, from somewhere near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the rockets fell short of its intended target and instead hit near a mosque in the small village of Khodigi Kalay, just outside the southern perimeter of the base.

Although the rocket missed the mosque by about three feet, shrapnel from the rocket caused significant damage to the mosque's facade, porch and a support pillar.

In a country where preventive medicine is not readily available, the Task Force Victory Surgon Cell can make a big difference by going to remote villages to treat local people.

"We are here to identify any medical problems the Afghans may have, treat what we can, and refer the serious cases to the hospitals," said Dr. (Col.) Richard Hines, a family practice doctor with the cell.

The surgeon cell is comprised of Soldiers who practice many forms of medicine. Doctors, veterinarians, medics, and entomologists are a few of the professionals in the surgeon cell here, said Hines.

During operations, four stations are set up to control the flow of people and animals: a women's clinic, a men's clinic, a well-check tent for children and a livestock clinic, said Maj. Jamie Blow, a preventive medical officer with the surgeon cell.

Children suffering from difficult-to-treat medical conditions in rural Afghanistan may have no better friend than the U.S. Marines of "America's Battalion."

Over the course of their deployment to Afghanistan, the Marines and Navy corpsmen of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, have come to the aid of several children who were not receiving treatment for serious injuries.

One teenager, Syed Ullah, recently received a prosthetic eye after Marines on patrol in Nagalam learned of his wounds.

"Last year an insurgent's 107 mm rocket landed in Syed's village during an indiscriminate attack that has become the mainstay of (the insurgents') tactics," said Marine 1st Lt. Justin Bellman, executive officer of the 3rd Marines' Company I. "The rocket sent shrapnel into his face and arms, disfiguring him."

An Afghan boy whose father received treatment from a visiting U.S. military medical team last week turned a cache of ammunition and drugs over to coalition forces April 21.

The boy led Afghan National Army and coalition forces to a house in a village 10 kilometers away from Ghazni. The ANA approached the house's owner, who claimed he had no weapons inside. Afghan and coalition forces searched the dwelling and discovered a cache of 13 rocket-propelled grenades, a Russian-manufactured machine gun, a mortar round, several improvised-explosive-device components, plastic explosives, numerous rounds of ammunition and two bags of opium.

One of the easiest and most effective ways U.S. Soldiers can win the hearts and minds of Afghans is through the children. Troops from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Combined Joint Task Force-76, got a chance to win the hearts and minds of young Afghans May 9 during a trip to an orphanage and all-girl school.

The troops, most of whom are based out of the Southern European Task Force on Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy, visited the side-by-side installations in Charikar, a village near Bagram Airfield. While there they handed out school supplies, toys and clothing to the kids.

The HHC Soldiers adopted the two installations taking donations from various individuals, groups and organizations from their home stations and the States. The school and orphanage were adopted by the previous HHC troops that the CJTF-76 troops relieved in March. The last time they visited, however, was November.

Today in the village of Qal eh ye Shanan, a games park created by the Italian military contingent (CIMIC) opened after two weeks work under the direction of the men of the "2nd Reggimento Genio Guastatori di Trento". The work - a memo reads - involved the installation of games equipment, the creation of a garden with benches, a volleyball pitch and the removal of tons of refuse from the games park about 1500 metres from 'Camp Invictia', the Italian base in Kabul.

The Italian contingent keeps on supporting Kabul's population. In this case, the help is for the so-called "angels of the sky", the three nuns of the Little Sisters of Jesus congregation who are still in the country: Chantal (French), Mariam (Swiss) and Chaterine (Japanese). The men of the 8th artillery regiment 'Pasubio' delivered 5 tonnes of humanitarian aid to them, to be handed out to the local people. The goods include 1800 kg of clothes, 700 of bedcovers, 2000 of food, 500 of toys and 800 of shoes. The logistics operation being led by col. Francesco Franza will have to deliver 1,350,000 litres of water for showers, toilets, bakeries, laundries, 58,000 hot meals; 69,000 litres of mineral water; 105,000 litres of diesel fuel, and repair armament devices and means of transport, take care of road maintenance and provide health assistance with ambulances.

Tears of joy spring to the corner of Khan Mohammad's eyes as he talks about what the Egyptian doctors have done for his son, Abdul Hafiz.

One afternoon, Hafiz stepped on an active mine. The explosion sent pieces of shrapnel into a portion of his small intestine, said Dr. (Lt. Col.) Hany M. Fares, the chief consultant of surgery with the Egyptian Hospital.

"He required a minor surgery to repair his small intestine," said Fares. "We cut out the damaged piece of intestine and then sewed it back together"...

Every day, the doctors and nurses at the Egyptian Hospital treat Coalition patients and local Afghans with stories like Hafiz's. The hospital staff treats 300 to 400 patients a day, said Col. Emad Rabie, commander of the Egyptian Hospital...

From serious problems to preventive medicine, the doctors and nurses at the Egyptian Hospital see it all...

There's a multitude of highly skilled doctors, nurses and professional services offered at the hospital, said Rabie.

The hospital has a gynecological clinic, radiology tent, ophthalmology clinic, pediatrics clinic, surgery tents, lab tent, internal medicine clinic, dentistry clinic and tropical medicine clinic.

Every six months, the hospital staff rotates out. The present staff has been here for three months. In the past three months, the hospital has treated 26,000 patients and performed 300 operations.

Most of the Afghans support President Hamid Karzai's bid to have long-term security ties with the United States.

President's spokesman Jawed Ludin told a news conference after the assembly of more than 1,000 chiefs and regional leaders, which Hamid Karzai summoned in the presidential palace... to debate on relationship with the US and whether permanent bases should be given to the US forces in Afghanistan.

"Our findings from today's discussions were that people are very positive about this, and I think that people are thinking, by and large, exactly on the same line as we had expected," Ludin stated and added that Karzai would discuss long-term strategic relations with the US when he meets President George W Bush this month.

Ian Kemp... an independent defense analyst in London... notes that the Afghan population, as a whole, is less sympathetic to the Taliban than it had been to mujahedin who fought the Soviets during the 1980s. He says that as support the Taliban is eroded further, it is more difficult for militants to find villages where they can safely take shelter after conducting a guerilla attack.

"The U.S.-led coalition is gradually eroding the sanctuary that was previously enjoyed by the guerilla fighters -- thus, making it far more difficult for them to operate the classic mujahedin hit-and-run attack upon their opponents and then retreat into a vast sanctuary and even cross the border into Pakistan. The Taliban today do not enjoy the popular support throughout the country. And, of course most significantly, the fact that the Pakistani forces are operating along the Afghan-Pakistan border makes it more difficult for the Taliban to operate," Kemp said.

Newly constructed provincial roads and an expanded number of U.S. forward operations bases also have strengthened the abilities of the U.S.-led coalition and reduced areas of potential sanctuary for guerilla fighters in Afghan provinces like Khost, Zabol, Uruzgan, and Kandahar.

When the U.S. Marine Corps' 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment ventured into the Tora Bora mountains recently to hunt down enemy fighters, they instead found Afghans eager for a brighter future.

The mission, dubbed Operation Celtics, began as an offensive in an enemy sanctuary - the rugged mountains of Nangahar Province that stretch along the Pakistan border.

It was one of several missions launched this week by Coalition troops to locate insurgents. Afghan National Army soldiers took part in the operations. "Lima" Company Marines were prepared for a fight, but found themselves sipping tea with village elders.

In the first few days of the operation, the Marines distributed roughly eight tons of civic aid. And not a shot was fired.

A top Taliban commander and dozens of his men have surrendered to the Afghan government as part of an arms-for-amnesty scheme, a military official said Tuesday.

Mulla Abdul Khaliq, locally-known as Haji Malam and 40 of his guerrillas on Monday surrendered to Afghanistan's military forces in south-central Uruzgan province, Muslim Hamed, the military commander of southern region told AFP.

"He was a big Taliban regional commander. His surrender will help in security in the region," the general said.

He said Khaliq was organising most of the anti-government insurgencies in the Uruzgan area where the remnants of the Taliban have been frequently attacking government targets and US-led troops since their regime was toppled by a US invasion in late 2001.

Peals of laughter rang through the remote Afghan farmhouse as neighbours rushed to welcome home the long-lost son of the soil. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged. Teenage boys offered trays of sweet tea. The women waited patiently in a back room, silent and unseen as ever.

The bearded man at the centre of the hubbub, Mufti Habib-ur-Rehman, allowed his solemn face to crack into a grin. "It's good to be back," he said.

Smile he might. Days earlier Mr Rehman, 35, a one-time Taliban governor, had been a wanted man. He lived as a fugitive across the border in Pakistan, 20 miles to the south. He had not seen his family in years. US troops were offering a $2,500 (£1,360) award for his capture, dead or alive.

Last month, after secret negotiations brokered by local mullahs - and promises from the Americans not to shoot - he came in from the cold.

"I am not a terrorist. I am here to work for the reconstruction of my country," he said before pledging allegiance to the president, Hamid Karzai.

Mr Rehman is one of dozens of mid-level Taliban officials who have defected to the government this year, a process which US officials hope is the beginning of the end for the insurgency that has dogged them since 2001.

The Afghan government has announced an initiative designed to repatriate noncriminal combatants and insurgents back into Afghan society.

Professor Sibghatullah al-Mojaddedi announced the Tahkim-e Solh, or Strengthening Peace, program at a May 9 news conference in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Mojaddedi will serve as a commissioner for the program.

The program is designed to urge members of the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin and other anti-coalition militia who have not been involved in criminal activity to return to Afghanistan from foreign lands. The goal, Mojaddedi explained, is to "help unite Afghanistan and guarantee our country's sovereignty, peace, stability, and a secure environment for all Afghans."

The president of Afghanistan's supreme court has issued a fatwa or religious edict saying that anyone who kills a foreigner will be sentenced to death. Fazli Hadi Shinwari, who also heads the Council of Islamic Leaders in Afghanistan, said that the recent kidnapping of Italian aid worker, Clementina Cantoni was also against Islamic teachings and that they had decided to issue the fatwa against all of these actions.

"Those who come to our country, respecting our laws and helping us are untouchable, according to the Islamic law," said Shinwari in an interview with the Italian daily, Il Giornale, explaining why such a strong fatwa was issued yesterday by the Council of Religious leaders, against killing foreigners. The fatwa adopted by the supreme count states that: "If a foreign guest of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is killed, the punishment for the assasination is the death penalty."

More than 50,000 former Afghan military troops have disarmed, and 90 per cent of them have entered a programme aimed at helping them to re-join society...

"The most popular area of reintegration is agriculture with 43.6 per cent of participants choosing that option," Ariane Quentier, spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told a press briefing in the capital Kabul. "Vocational training is a distant second with 26.9 per cent participation."

Of the 50,514 soldiers who have laid down their arms, 44,995 have entered into the reintegration programme.

Ms. Quentier also announced that nearly 31,000 light and heavy weapons have been collected under the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process. "The discrepancy between the number of collected weapons and disarmed soldiers stem from the fact that certain weapons are manned by more than one soldier," she explained.

Once a combatant, 34-year-old Abdul Ghafour wakes each day to begin his new life as the sole carpenter in the tiny village of Janat Bagh. The father-of-five, once a trained RPG [rocket propelled grenade] launcher in the former 54th military division, now helps to reconstruct his own village in northeastern Kunduz province's Khanabad district.

Ghafour's was one of the very first militias to be decommissioned through the UN-backed disarmament demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme in November 2003.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are supporting Kabul's efforts to honourably decommission the Afghan Military Forces (AMF). This is being achieved through the Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), the official name of the DDR scheme. Today it is considered a major step towards restoring national security and creating an enabling environment for further security sector reform.

After surrendering his gun, Ghafour chose to take up carpentry in his efforts to rebuilt his life and reintegrate into society, while at the same time learning how to read. In addition to having a proper trade, he is also one of the few people who can read and write in Janat Bagh where most of the adults are former combatants and youngsters who missed school due to years of displacement.

"The DDR has healed the wounds of two decades of war. Now I am an important person in the village. I earn up to 5,000 Afghanis [US$100] and can read sign boards of pharmacies' and doctors'," Ghafour explained. "Nowadays I am often hired a month in advance as this is the season of construction here," he said proudly.

U.S. forces are beginning to hand over security responsibilities to the Afghan National Army.

As the Bobcats of B Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, pull their troops from the Tarin Kowt area, the ANA's 3rd Kandak, 1st Brigade, 205th Corps, are moving in.

Replacing U.S. forces with ANA troops at a forward operating base is the first operations exchange to take place.

Changes are taking place on the borders of Afghanistan, and one man is leading the way.

Afghan Col. Safe Aube, commander of the Transitional Afghan Border Security Force, and 229 border-security volunteers from across the country are replacing the existing border police forces in Islam Quala, on Afghanistan's border with Iran in Herat province.

"The mission is to replace the existing border police with my men so that those men can be retrained to enforce the rule of law," said Aube. "Once the men are trained, they will return, and we will then move on to the next border site and do the same thing."

This pilot program is planned for 13 other border locations around the country. The hope is to put an end to corruption and increase revenue through proper taxes instituted at the borders.

Fourteen bases are being developed throughout the country for the Afghan National Army's 3,500-man brigades, but long before these bases are put in place, a team of engineers from the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan puts in many hours of planning and research.

One of the their latest projects is a new brigade base at Jalalabad in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, where U.S. Army Maj. Andrew Kirkner, an engineer with the Defense Resource Sector directorate at OMC-A, recently led a site reconnaissance for the new base.

"The recon allows us to look at the terrain, to see whether it is suitable for construction," said Kirkner. "We prefer relatively flat terrain because it is easiest to build on and keeps the cost of the project down."

Around 40 trained police personnel of the 10th security check-post Sunday started round-the-clock patrols on city roads on special bicycles and motorbikes, in a step to boost security in the capital.

DynCorp, with financial assistance from the United States, began training 32 of the policemen for patrols on bicycles and six on motorbikes in early February. Having undergone the three-month training, the cops were awarded certificates at a ceremony here yesterday.

One of the trainees, Aminullah said in a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News: "With the help of bicycles, we would be able to patrol more areas in less time. Earlier, we would patrol on foot."

A hostel to accommodate 100 female police officers was opened in the capital Kabul by the Counter narcotics department and the women's ministry.

The hostel which was built with the aid of US$ 632,000 from the German government has a kindergarten, sports rooms, and classrooms. The accommodation was specially to provide homes for women working in the Kabul police force who don't have anywhere to live.

There are eight girls currently training at the police academy, and police trainers hope that the new accommodation would attract many new recruits from the provinces.

The director of the Police academy, Gen. Shir Aqa Rohani said that after the fall of the Taliban, about 2,027 students graduated from the police academy, and out of these 57 were women. He said the female police officers were assigned to the counter narcotics department at the Kabul airport.

Last year at this time, the southeastern Afghan province of Nangrahar was covered with pink and white poppies, producing a quarter of the nation's opium crop. This year, after President Hamid Karzai announced a jihad or holy war against drugs, Nangrahar is almost 80 percent free of poppies.

Eradication is just one of the more visible efforts to control the drug trade. With President Karzai's government fully engaged, the international community - with Britain in the lead - has developed a multipronged approach to Afghanistan's pervasive drug industry, including:

- A public affairs campaign to transform attitudes about drug production and use;

- Assistance for rebuilding the judicial system, including the Counternarcotics Prosecution Task Force and counternarcotics detention facilities;

- Creation of alternative livelihoods;

- Enhanced interdiction efforts.

"We now have the basis of all these key elements in place in Afghanistan," says Steve Atkins, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington. "It took 30 years in Thailand, which was a much less complex program. [Afghanistan] is a great challenge and one we don't underestimate."

Villagers in eastern Afghanistan are being shown the country's first anti-opium movie, combining heroism, romance and an educational message, in an attempt to eradicate the flourishing drug culture in the region.

Black Poison, a film project described by its creator, Shafiq Shaiq, as an "action-adventure with romantics and heroics", has been shown to audiences in village squares across the Nangarhar province.

The film features real heroin laboratories and frequent bloody shoot-outs between police and dealers in the mountains.

Mr Shaiq, an Afghan media mogul who campaigns against the drug trade through a newspaper, cable TV network and radio station mini-empire, says he turned to film to wake up young people who are spellbound by the aura of the gunmen who strut about his native city of Jalalabad, in the heart of Afghanistan's eastern poppy fields.